15/11/2011 Political Affairs and Democracy
Strasbourg, 15.11.2011 - The Political Affairs Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), reaffirmed the universal nature of human rights, approving today in Paris a report by Denis Badré (France, ALDE) on the subject.
According to the rapporteur, human rights can empower because they start with the individual: notably, the right to life, the principle of non-discrimination, the right to justice, a fair trial, protection against torture, the right to having an opinion, a faith.
The affirmation of human rights is worth the same to everyone, everywhere, or else it is not worth anything at all. In fact, it implicates the inherent dignity to all members of the human family, irrespective of distinctions of race, gender, language or religion. Neither cultural, traditional nor religious values, nor the rules of a “dominant culture” can be invoked to justify hate speech or any other form of discrimination, including on grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity.
That said, I believe that we can only reaffirm the universality of human rights if we go beyond the dilemma of relativism and universalism. We will clear out the confusion surrounding human rights through a better understanding of the nuances of identities, of the subjective and collective meanings of religion, the abandoning of dogmatisms, and a pragmatic approach focused on what we can do together as human beings.
The Council of Europe remains the main driver in Europe of the universality of human rights and should further promote human rights in the context of inter-cultural dialogue within the member states as well as with neighbouring countries.
Our governments and parliaments must do more to ensure that education about human rights be included in curricula and that the language and values of human rights in the context of different cultures and religions permeate every level of school environment and to identify strategies that empower learners to become actors of social, political and cultural change.